Door County Tourism Zone Commission : Meeting Minutes

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June 28, 2007 Door County Tourism Zone Commission Meeting

DOOR COUNTY TOURISM ZONE COMMISSION
MEETING MINUTES
Thursday June 28, 2007
Sevastopol

A regularly scheduled meeting of the Door County Tourism Zone Commission was called to order at 9:04 Am, on Thursday, June 28, 2007 by.

The following were present:
Paul Georgia
Craig Neddersen
Patti Taylor
Jerry Zaug
Diane Lensert
Chuck Tice
Barb Lautenbach
Jim Sarkis
Robert Kufrin
Andy Coulson
Bryan Nelson
Bill Weddig
Bruce Hill
Paige Funkhauser

There were no minutes to report from last week.

Permits
Diane reports that we are up to 482 permits issued. The non-respond list is now under 200. May collections are up to $52,869.00. This above the expected, and there is still a number of them out there. Diane does not have a good idea yet of how many are out there yet. For clarification the properties themselves need to be separately permitted. Examples there are four cottages for Clark Lake Cottages they have four different owners that are renting out. So there would be four separate properties that would need to have a permit. Basically one license one permit no matter how many properties there on that license. We need to make a decision on what we are going to do with the 200 that are not responding. The second letter has been mailed out. It was mailed on Thursday June 21st. The people who were on the first mailing who did not respond have gotten the certified second mailing. We need to discuss at what time we want to discuss options with Randy. We have gotten responses from the certified letters they were good, bad and indifferent. There were a few applying for permits, and some that were dislocations. Nobody has said they rent, and they won�t pay.

Karen Raymore Resignation
Karen Raymore has resigned. Jerry was asked to come to the meeting today, because it is important that we know how things are going to operate for the next few months. Jerry said they had a few options on how to handle Karen�s resignation. They could hire a professional to take the position for a few months. That option was not looked upon highly because they do not want a lot of changes being made by somebody who is only going to be filling the position temporarily. They also could have the current department heads continue doing what they are doing. Everything would continue to run the way it has been. They met with the staff on Friday afternoon after Karen said she would be resigning. Each department head would have to be more responsible, and step up to the plate more. Jerry will be available for them as needed. They are going to have weekly staff meetings to keep things moving along smoothly. There will be no changes what so ever made at this time. Jerry does not see any complications in regard to the Marketing Plan. They are looking at getting in a professional that would be there on a permanent basis. They are looking for Travel Destination Marketing Organization CEO�s. They are looking for a marketing expert, good with working with people, good at doing presentations. This person is going to do more than administration. To the extent this person is going to be involved in marketing, part of his/her salary would be apart of the marketing plan.

Room Tax Exemptions
The question has been brought up about exemptions for Room Tax if it is a longer stay? It has been agreed that would be a good question for an attorney. Paul brought up Administrative Code 11.48; Paul believes he has given copies to some of the group. It defines Transient, as any person residing at one location for a continuous period of less than one month. A continuing monthly rental of a particular room(s) by a business including a trucking company, a railway, and an airline to be used by its employees for lay over purposes. It was discussed that this would be a good question for Randy Nesbitt. Paul also stated that typically you go through the Department of Administration before the Department of Revenue. Diane also brought up that the phone calls have decreased. They are hoping by the end of the month things will have stabilized a little. The question was brought up should there be a standard letter sent out for those whom have not responded? We have talked about having Randy Nesbitt help out with that letter. There were no other questions for Diane.

Approval of Entity Agreement
Charlie and Bob met with Karen some time ago and we are still working on some minor modifications. The agreement was sent to Randy Nesbitt for his review and comments. Randy made two changes, one was made in section 8 which was failure to perform 30-day notice, provision, and change section 6a. They met for about an hour and a half. The entire agreement was renumbered. One of the things discussed was to make sure that we have set calendar dates so we know when things will happen. There were a total of three revisions done to the Entity Agreement. Paul had a question on number 7 there is not a date certain there and Randy let that go through? Very simple it is normal language. Jim had a question on number 8, number 8 is lagging. Who decides there is a breach? Who decides it has been repaired. If you cannot reach an agreement it goes to arbitration. There is really no way to resolve a dispute. If the Visitor�s Bureau thinks they are right and we think we are right, then what is the method to ending the dispute? Paul suggested that we table this for now and bring it back to Randy for review.

Discussions then came up about excess funds. Paul had a question of when would we know at the end of the year? Yes, we would not know about excess funds until the end of the year. We do not have a reserve set up, and there is really no need for one. There are a lot of different things that could be done with excess money. If we project or perceive that there will be excess money it will be brought to the commission�s attention. We are on a fiscal year; this year will be a short year. No other questions were asked.

Motion was made by Barb seconded by Chuck to end the meeting. All voted in favor. The meeting was ad-journed.

Respectfully submitted,

Paul J. Georgia
Secretary/Treasurer

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